Police: Protectors, associates may be behind killings of trader, wife

The police are looking into the angle that the “protectors” and “big time associates” of Melvin and Meriam Odicta were behind the killing of the Iloilo businessman and his wife at the Caticlan port in Aklan province early Monday.

“Looks like their protectors or big time associates did them in, afraid that both disclosed something when they visited (Interior Secretary Ismael “Mike” Sueño) last Friday. That is the angle that we are looking at,” Chief Supt. Jose Gentiles, Western Visayas police regional director, told the media.

READ: Trader tagged as drug lord ‘Dragon,’ wife shot dead in Aklan

Melvin was recently identified by Philippine National Police chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa as “Dragon,” the biggest drug lord in Iloilo.

The couple were walking at the walkway of the port terminal from the roll-on roll-off vessel around 1:30 a.m. when they were shot by still unidentified gunmen.

They were then brought to the Malay District Hospital in Aklan but were declared dead by the attending physician.

The police are now conducting pursuit operations against the assailants.

In a statement Monday, Sueño said when he met with the Odicta couple last Thursday, they told him they were receiving death threats.

Before his meeting with the Odictas at Camp Crame, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued a media advisory that the businessman will “reveal a matrix of other personalities involved (in drugs) including senators, congressmen and local officials.”

READ: Iloilo trader, wife meet DILG chief to deny links to drugs

But when Sueño faced the media after the meeting, he said the Odictas did not give him any “drug matrix.” He said the couple only wanted to clear their names, denying their alleged drug links.

Lawyer Raymond Fortun, in an ambush interview last Thursday, also told reporters that the couple did not give names of senators and other local executives involved in the drug trade to the DILG.